wonderwall
by a warrior queen
Summary: Come on, make it easy: say I never mattered. —KibaIno


**dedication: **to myself and Dr. Pepper  
**summary: **Come on, make it easy; say I never mattered.  
**notes: **i had a witty remark to go here, but i forgot. i hope it hurts.

**Wonderwall**

She's breathing hard, but she won't cry.

Crying is not something Ino Yamanaka does—she won't cry for no asshole that doesn't deserve a single one of her tears. No, this is harsh breathing out of unadulterated rage; heartbreak is out of the question. Her heart can't break when it's made of solid steel, pumping liquid gold and silver linings, strengthening her veins and her mind.

She won't be brought down.

Especially not by the boy-man standing in front of her, hands stuffed in the pockets of his wool coat, messy brown hair even messier and dark eyes narrowed with anger and annoyance.

Ino sneers, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head back so she could stare down at him from under her nose.

"Go on and say it," she hisses. "Say I didn't matter—say that it was all a lie. Go ahead, see if I care."

He scoffs, shaking his head. "You're crazy—"

"No," she declared. "I'm not. I'm _done_. I'm done with this back and forth—with your coming and going, you selfish habit of leaving and expecting me to still be here when you come back. I'm done with you leaving and coming back just when I'm finally moving on—I don't even know why I'm still _here_. What the hell do I owe _you_? You don't deserve me."

She throws her head back and gave a dry laugh. "You don't deserve me. I can do so much better than you—I'm done. You managed to bring me back the last time I said it, but I'm done now. I… I hate you."

"Don't say that," he says, exhaling as if he's tired. As if he's the one that's been mentally fucked by a selfish being that didn't know what they want and blamed everyone else for their problems. "You don't mean it."

"Oh, but I do," Ino says, shaking her head. "I could say I love you—I probably still do, but I swear to you, Kiba Inuzuka, I hate you with a passion."

He shakes his head, taking a step forwards, but Ino swears she's done standing still and letting him come and go. She takes a step back, raising a hand in between them to keep a distance.

"You don't fucking _mean that_," he growls, his angry eyes connecting with hers. "What the fuck did I do wrong this time?!"

Ino laughs, again, this time with a bit more feeling—with hysteria and anger and hurt. Because she may not be heartbroken but she's hurt.

All those years full of memories, of laughs and anger and friendship and jokes and staying up late and talking to each other about everything and nothing at all, about secrets spilt and—and—it was all _gone_. Ino doesn't think she knows why or when it happened but she'd sat in the middle of a burning house, waiting for it to cease from falling apart and rebuild itself. But it never happened and she's just sitting there, in the middle of soot all covered in memories and shattered futures because the person she cared about didn't…

"You don't…" She shakes her head, lips twitching as she tries to hide a sad, broken smile. "You don't care about me—I never mattered…"

"You did fucking matter," Kiba hisses and his voice cracks with the anger and desperation to get his feelings across. "You _still_ fucking matter!"

And that could be true, Ino decides, taking a couple of steps back. She could have meant something at some point, lost in time. But in the here and now she felt as if she's been used—a used up doll, kept close because the owner didn't want to let go but didn't want to stay, either.

She swallows, "You have fucked with me long enough… I'm done—"

"Ino—"

"No, I'm done."

He begins to walk towards her again, but she steps back every step he takes to get closer.

"Ino would you fucking listen—"

She shakes her head.

This is it.

This is the end. She's found better people—a new circle of friends that don't fuck with her head the way Kiba did. And Ino felt a pang against her steel heart and it felt like sadness. But Ino is strong and she will move on from this—keep the memories made the past three years—and be okay because she's steel hearted and impossible to break.

He's calling after her, but Ino is done.

.

.

.


End file.
